Complex political military organization made up of three separate branches
Allgemeine-SS (General SS) was the main branch of this overwhelmingly complex organization, and it served a politicial and administrative role
The SS-Totenkopfverbande (SS Deaths Head Organization) and later, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS), were the other two branches that made up the structure of the SS
Waffen-SS (Armed SS)
Formed from the SS-Verfungstruppe after the Campaign in France in 1940 true military formation of the larger SS
True military formation of the larger SS
Three more formations were formed by order of Himmler
LSSAH, SS-VT and SS-TV took place in the Invasion of Poland as well as Fall Gelb
The overall performance of the Waffen-SS had been mediocre during these campaigns.
SA
Storm Detachment or Battalion
Sturmabteilung, German for stormtrooper
Functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party
Instead of a large mass assault, the Sturmabteilung was organized into small squads of a few soldiers each
Played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
Very important to Adolf Hitler's rise to power, but was largely irrelevant after he took control of Germany in 1933; it was effectively superseded by the SS after the Night of the Long Knives
Major People
Hitler
Nazis joined the Communists to join their power. He ran for President, but only receiving 30% of the people’s votes, so he entered the coalition government as chancellor in January 1933. He officially became the leader of the National Socialist German Worker’s party, Nazi Party. Members of this party grew rapidly and by 1923 he could count on fifty-six thousand members.
He was tried for treason and was imprisoned in the old fort of Landsberg. While he was in jail he began his exploration with his plans and outlines of his party, which had been outlawed and lost most of its appeal. When he was released he rebuilt his party with a group of very loyal followers who were to be the center of his main movement.
His first two years in office he gained much control. He got rid of all his competition and rivals and brought all control that he needed under his nose. When President Hindenburg passed away, Hitler was now free to try and rule. He became all-powerful ruler of Germany.
Hitler showed his great fule in 1934 during the great Nazi mass rally in Nuremberg, Germany. This is were millions of soldiers marched all together and saluted to Hitler.
He installed he “final solution” which was imprisonment of all Jewish people by placing them into concentration camps. In 1941 he ordered for them to report to the ghettos in Eastern Europe. Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda maestro, wrote in his diary: “With regards to the Jewish question, the Fuhrer decided to make a clean sweep.”
Himmler
Henrich Himmler was very much devoted to Adolf Hitler. Whatever Adolf wanted, Himmler would follow through with his orders. He was a mass murderer and had low intelligence and intellectual ability. He believed in Hitler and all his wonderful powers.
"Among Himmler's characteristics was an almost neurotic shyness. At big receptions he always avoided crowds and went from group to group. When important generals came to report to him, he humiliated and demoralized them by making them wait three or four days before seeing them.... After each interview , Himmler would say to Kersten, "Thank God, I wont have to see them for another two months." Himmler was only at ease behind his desk; he fought a paper war."
He was a realist, who negotiated with Count Bernadette of Sweden and released some prisoners from the concentration camps. He was behind Hitler’s back the whole time, but at times he did not understand his own responsibility. One of the reasons why he was not able to stand up or say his own input to Adolf was that he was scared of his scolding.
Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels was born on the 29th of October in 1897. He was born into a catholic house. He was a Nazi propagandist and the dictator of the Nazi’s cultural life for 12 years. Born with polio he was rejected from the military due to his disability.
His hatred for the Jewish people was spread throughout Nazi beliefs. Goebbels was a master at propaganda; he was able to turn many people to the Nazi beliefs using his propaganda skills. He was able to have his own newspaper, which he edited and added his own propaganda and posters to, influencing people to join the Nazi community
Goebbels portrayed Hitler as a hero not a monster, which led more people to join. Portraying him as the savior to the Germans from the Jews, profiteers, and Marxists. He even hosted the burning of the books ceremony, where Nazi’s burned hundreds of Jewish and Marxist books. Goebbels was convinced he could exterminate all Jewish people all over the world. Right after Hitler committed suicide, he had his children lethally injected and then shot his wife and himself.
Mengele
Mengele was a “doctor” who studied medicine and philosophy in college, and after college, he joined the Nazi party. He served in combat and was promoted through the ranks until an injury caused him to become unable to serve in the battlefield. He was then posted in the office of race and resettlement in Berlin.
Himler appoints Mengele as a doctor at Birkenau, which was a supplementary center at Auschwitz. Mengele takes this opportunity to experiment on the incoming jews, his primary focus being people with genetic abnormalities and twins
After Auschwitz was liberated, Mengele fled Birkenau went underground as the liberations moved closer to him. He maintained undercover for some years and decided to flee to Brazil, when his cover was put under compromise. He remained in Brazil undercover and died in 1979 from a stroke when he was swimming. “1985 - Mengele is tried in absentia at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in February. Survivors of his experiments at Auschwitz provide testimony” (Josef Mengele Killer).
Medical Experiments
“Josef Mengele and the Nazi doctors tortured men, women and children and did medical experiments of unspeakable horror during the Holocaust. Victims were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death. Children were exposed to experimental surgeries performed without anesthesia, transfusions of blood from one to another, isolation endurance, reaction to various stimuli. The Nazi doctors made injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, removal of organs and limbs”(Bülow).
High-Altitude Experiments
Mengele would make people stand in low pressure chambers, and would raise the pressure to see the results on the person and their bodies, these people would experience excruciating pain.
Incendiary Bomb Experiments
Freezing Experiments
Mengele would have people strip naked and make them either stay in a tank of ice water or he would make them go outside when the temperatures were freezing or below and make them stand there until they froze to death
Sea-water Experiments
Malaria Experiments
Mustard Gas Experiments
Victims would be injured and mustard gas would be injected into the wound to see the results and see if the infection could be stopped.
Sulfanilamide Experiments
Spotted Fever (Typhus) Experiments
Experiments with Poison
“I had been able to ascertain that Mussfeld had a high esteem for the medical expert's professional qualities. He knew that my superior was Dr. Mengele, the KZ's most dreaded figure” (Auschwitz; a doctor's eyewitness account).
Works Cited
Bülow, Louis. “Adolf Hitler and The Holocaust.” The Holocaust, Crimes, Heroes, and Villians. N.p., 2010. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.auschwitz.dk/hitler.htm>.
- - -. The Holocaust, Crimes, Heroes, and Villians. N.p., 2009. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.mengele.dk/children/experiments.htm>.
“Josef Mengele Killer File.” MoreorLess. N.p., 26 May 2009. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/mengele.html>.
Kimel, Alexander. “The Holocaust Organizers - Himmler.” Online Holocaust Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.kimel.net/himmler.html>.
Meier, David A. “Hitler’s Rise To Power.” Nodak. N.p., 2000. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html>.
Palomino, Michael. “Cartoons of Nebelspalter 1932-1948: Hitler and Stalin seen from Switzerland. Part 2.” geschichteinchronologie. N.p., 2006. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/ch/nebelspalter-Hitler-Stalin1940-1948-ENGL.html>.
Wistrich, Robert S. “Joseph Goebbels.” Jewish Virtual Library. N.p., 2010. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/goebbels.html>.
Nazi Structure
- SS
- Most infamous of all the German organizations
- Complex political military organization made up of three separate branches
- Allgemeine-SS (General SS) was the main branch of this overwhelmingly complex organization, and it served a politicial and administrative role
- The SS-Totenkopfverbande (SS Deaths Head Organization) and later, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS), were the other two branches that made up the structure of the SS
- Waffen-SS (Armed SS)
- Formed from the SS-Verfungstruppe after the Campaign in France in 1940 true military formation of the larger SS
- True military formation of the larger SS
- Three more formations were formed by order of Himmler
- LSSAH, SS-VT and SS-TV took place in the Invasion of Poland as well as Fall Gelb
- The overall performance of the Waffen-SS had been mediocre during these campaigns.
- SA
- Storm Detachment or Battalion
- Sturmabteilung, German for stormtrooper
- Functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party
- Instead of a large mass assault, the Sturmabteilung was organized into small squads of a few soldiers each
- Played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
- Very important to Adolf Hitler's rise to power, but was largely irrelevant after he took control of Germany in 1933; it was effectively superseded by the SS after the Night of the Long Knives
- Major People
- Hitler
- Nazis joined the Communists to join their power. He ran for President, but only receiving 30% of the people’s votes, so he entered the coalition government as chancellor in January 1933. He officially became the leader of the National Socialist German Worker’s party, Nazi Party. Members of this party grew rapidly and by 1923 he could count on fifty-six thousand members.
- He was tried for treason and was imprisoned in the old fort of Landsberg. While he was in jail he began his exploration with his plans and outlines of his party, which had been outlawed and lost most of its appeal. When he was released he rebuilt his party with a group of very loyal followers who were to be the center of his main movement.
- His first two years in office he gained much control. He got rid of all his competition and rivals and brought all control that he needed under his nose. When President Hindenburg passed away, Hitler was now free to try and rule. He became all-powerful ruler of Germany.
- Hitler showed his great fule in 1934 during the great Nazi mass rally in Nuremberg, Germany. This is were millions of soldiers marched all together and saluted to Hitler.
- He installed he “final solution” which was imprisonment of all Jewish people by placing them into concentration camps. In 1941 he ordered for them to report to the ghettos in Eastern Europe. Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda maestro, wrote in his diary: “With regards to the Jewish question, the Fuhrer decided to make a clean sweep.”
- Himmler
- Henrich Himmler was very much devoted to Adolf Hitler. Whatever Adolf wanted, Himmler would follow through with his orders. He was a mass murderer and had low intelligence and intellectual ability. He believed in Hitler and all his wonderful powers.
- "Among Himmler's characteristics was an almost neurotic shyness. At big receptions he always avoided crowds and went from group to group. When important generals came to report to him, he humiliated and demoralized them by making them wait three or four days before seeing them.... After each interview , Himmler would say to Kersten, "Thank God, I wont have to see them for another two months." Himmler was only at ease behind his desk; he fought a paper war."
- He was a realist, who negotiated with Count Bernadette of Sweden and released some prisoners from the concentration camps. He was behind Hitler’s back the whole time, but at times he did not understand his own responsibility. One of the reasons why he was not able to stand up or say his own input to Adolf was that he was scared of his scolding.
- Goebbels
- Joseph Goebbels was born on the 29th of October in 1897. He was born into a catholic house. He was a Nazi propagandist and the dictator of the Nazi’s cultural life for 12 years. Born with polio he was rejected from the military due to his disability.
- His hatred for the Jewish people was spread throughout Nazi beliefs. Goebbels was a master at propaganda; he was able to turn many people to the Nazi beliefs using his propaganda skills. He was able to have his own newspaper, which he edited and added his own propaganda and posters to, influencing people to join the Nazi community
- Goebbels portrayed Hitler as a hero not a monster, which led more people to join. Portraying him as the savior to the Germans from the Jews, profiteers, and Marxists. He even hosted the burning of the books ceremony, where Nazi’s burned hundreds of Jewish and Marxist books. Goebbels was convinced he could exterminate all Jewish people all over the world. Right after Hitler committed suicide, he had his children lethally injected and then shot his wife and himself.
Mengele- Medical Experiments
- “Josef Mengele and the Nazi doctors tortured men, women and children and did medical experiments of unspeakable horror during the Holocaust. Victims were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death. Children were exposed to experimental surgeries performed without anesthesia, transfusions of blood from one to another, isolation endurance, reaction to various stimuli. The Nazi doctors made injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, removal of organs and limbs”(Bülow).
- High-Altitude Experiments
- Mengele would make people stand in low pressure chambers, and would raise the pressure to see the results on the person and their bodies, these people would experience excruciating pain.
- Incendiary Bomb Experiments
- Freezing Experiments
- Mengele would have people strip naked and make them either stay in a tank of ice water or he would make them go outside when the temperatures were freezing or below and make them stand there until they froze to death
- Sea-water Experiments
- Malaria Experiments
- Mustard Gas Experiments
- Victims would be injured and mustard gas would be injected into the wound to see the results and see if the infection could be stopped.
- Sulfanilamide Experiments
- Spotted Fever (Typhus) Experiments
- Experiments with Poison
- “I had been able to ascertain that Mussfeld had a high esteem for the medical expert's professional qualities. He knew that my superior was Dr. Mengele, the KZ's most dreaded figure” (Auschwitz; a doctor's eyewitness account).
Works Cited